By The White House is downplaying President Trump’s claim that the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels. Trump reportedly made the comment in a memo this week to several congressional committees after the U.S. conducted strikes on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea.
Democrats have been questioning the president’s authority to act against cartels without congressional approval.
On Thursday, the White House insisted that Trump was not setting new policy with the memo, but claimed it was just legal record-keeping to show that the president “acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country.”
